With more than one million page views and more than 4,000 items, this blog provides news and commentary on public policy, business and economic issues related to the $3 billion California stem cell agency, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM). David Jensen, a retired California newsman, has published this blog since January 2005. His email address is djensen@californiastemcellreport.com.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Here is the text of comments by John M. Simpson, stem cell project director of the Consumer Watchdog of Santa Monica, Ca., concerning next week's CIRM board meeting on recommendations by the Little Hoover Commission.

“The Little Hoover Commission requires no response and the LegislativeSubcommittee is wasting the valuable time of its members trying to formulate one. What matters is action, not rhetoric.

"'Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful report. We appreciate its constructive tone and are giving serious consideration to all the recommendations you made.

"'Thank you,"'The ICOC'

“Then the ICOC needs to spend its time thinking about and acting on many of the issues raised in the report. Number one on my list would be succession planning now that Bob Klein has made it clear he won't be chairman after 2010. Another important thing to deal with is the revised strategic plan that has been lingering in draft form since last December.

“Little Hoover did its job. They offered an independent assessment and a bunch of suggestions. They have done their job and are on to their next study. They really don't care what your write back.

“Now the ICOC needs to do its job. Surely that's not wasting members' valuable time formulating a response to the report. That approach smacks more of ego -- and thin skin -- than anything else. Instead, tackle the very real issues the agency is facing.”Sphere: Related Content

About Me

The California Stem Cell Report is the only nongovernmental website devoted solely to the $3 billion California stem cell agency. The report is published by David Jensen, who worked for 22 years for The Sacramento Bee in a variety of editing positions, including executive business editor and special projects editor. He was the primary editor on the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning series, "The Monkey Wars" by Deborah Blum, which dealt with opposition to research on primates. Jensen served as a press aide in the 1974 campaign and first administration of Gov. Jerry Brown. (Time served: two years and one week.) He writes from his sailboat on the west coast of Mexico with occasional visits to land. Jensen began writing about the stem cell agency in 2005, noting that it is an unprecedented effort that uniquely combines big science, big business, big academia, big politics, religion, ethics and morality as well as life and death. The California Stem Cell Report has been identified as one of the best stem cell sites on the Internet. Its readership includes the media (both mainstream and science), a wide range of academic/research institutions globally, the NIH and California policy makers.